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Act like a juvenile at your commencement, get lionized at HuffPo

Remember Jean Sara Rohe, one of the two “distinguished seniors” the New School university deans asked to speak at last week’s commencement at New School? The commencement where, as the AP reported:

[…] dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised signs in protest and a distinguished student speaker pointedly mocked him as he sat silently nearby.

On Rohe, the AP reported:

Beginning by singing a wistful folk tune calling for world peace, Rohe announced she had thrown out her prepared remarks to address the McCain controversy directly.

“The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded” Rohe proclaimed to loud cheers, with McCain sitting just a few feet away.

She added that she knew what McCain would be saying to the graduates since he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday.

“He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions” Rohe said. “I am young and though I don’t possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.”

Well, wouldn’t you know it but Rohe has been given primo space at the Huffington Post, surprise surprise, to let everyone know “why” she said what she said. Not that we need an explanation: she hates President Bush and the admin. That’s the short version.

Check out Rohe’s comments here. Notable quotables (bold emphasis added for her comments and my responses are in italics):

John McCain arrived in the green room, and with the encouragement of Laurie Anderson, another honoree, Christina and I introduced ourselves to him. I almost wanted to warn the guy that I was about to make him look like an idiotOh, the irony … –ST so that he would at least have a fighting chance and an extra moment to change his speech to save himself. But he didn’t even make eye contact when we shook hands, so I figured I didn’t owe him anything.

Rude college kids and left-wing professors are hardly a new story. But the ugliness of the New School crowd toward Mr. McCain reveals the peculiar rage that now animates so many on the political left. Dozens of faculty and students turned their back on the Senator, others booed and heckled, and a senior invited to speak threw out her prepared remarks and mocked their invited guest as he sat nearby. Some 1,200 had signed petitions asking that Mr. McCain be disinvited.

“The Senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded,” said senior Jean Sara Rohe, which makes us wonder what ideals, and manners, she learned at home. “I am young and though I don’t possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.”

Speaking of “havoc,” Ms. Rohe spoke only blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. The Senator who spent years in the Hanoi Hilton reacted with admirable restraint to these insults, and readers who want to see his remarks can find them posted here.

Mr. McCain was invited to the New School by its president, former Democratic Senator and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Robert Kerrey. When Mr. Kerrey spoke, he was also heckled, with someone shouting, “You’re a war criminal!” It’d be comforting to dismiss all this as mere Manhattan derangement, but these passions have become common in liberal media and Web precincts and are spilling into national politics.

The hatred is back. I know it’s only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America — the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that’s going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice — once because they couldn’t stop it and once more at the polls.

Gateway Pundit has a link roundup of liberal guest commencement speakers [Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and Rep. William “Lacy” Clay (D-MO)] and the crowd reaction to those speeches.

I’m starting to wonder if it’s just a bad idea all around to invite politicians to speak at commencement ceremonies.

Other incidents of liberal antics on high school and college campuses can be found here:

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47 thoughts on “Act like a juvenile at your commencement, get lionized at HuffPo”

“The Senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded”

– Maybe that is a good sign they should dismantle the place, and move it over to France.

-Then they wouldn’t have to listen to all the Eeeeevvvvilll NeoCons, and instead they could talk about the wonderful workers paradise, where burning cars to cut down on polution, and get your way like a two year old, is the national passtime. Works for me.

– I don’t envy her. Shes in for a hard life if she stays in a Democratic Representative Republic. The “New School” is apparently just another rehash of the Marxist “Old School”. The end justifies the stupidity.

andrew, is there something inherently wrong with having some decorum and at least being polite, or is this how you would treat all guests.

Inviting him out there so that he can be sandbagged by someone who’s as close to zero, when it comes to an overall perspective by comparison of Rohe and McCain, is as was said by others, childish at best.

But her right to speak at her graduation exceeds the rights of the others in her class, to not hear her embarass the lot of them and the school. Next thing you know, they’ll be doing the same crapola at funerals. Oh wait! I guess they’ve already decended to that level.

There’s a time and place for most, but not everything and anytime. Especially and even when you have a microphone and camera in your face, one ought to demonstrate some self-control. That in part helps distinguish the adults and the children.

andrew- the thing is, every year we see these same stories come up! What people fail to realize is that year after year, the tradition of these speakers will continue. I agree with the speaker in that she is right as to what the school was founded upon. “This is the hour for the experiment; and New York is the place, because it is the greatest social science laboratory in the world and of its own force attracts scholars and leaders in educational work.” — proposal for The New School, 1918

The problem with how she handled it is quite simple..she took out her frustration on McCain, the guest, who was invited by the school President! It would have been more beneficial for her to protest the leaders of the school for inviting him. Instead, she channeled her anger to McCain, whose only sin seems to be that he accepted the invitation of his friend! Did she storm into Kerry’s office? Did she take out her frustrations on him prior to the graduation? Her behavior is appalling. She was obviously thinking of herself.

“Next thing you know, they’ll be doing the same crapola at funerals. Oh wait! I guess they’ve already decended to that level.”

In funerals of black women peace activists, you should also defer to the powerful white men present.

“The problem with how she handled it is quite simple..she took out her frustration on McCain, the guest, who was invited by the school President!”

Exactly. Not the students. This is a top down decision imposed on the students. And if you know the New School, you know they’ll rebel to being used as a prop for some right winger’s presidential campaign.

“P.S. Andrew- without looking at the thread, can you remember her name?”

andrew- As to the funerals, again..the POTUS was invited by the King family. CSK held a profound place in the history of this country. She was more than the wife of MLK. What place at a funeral is there for people to take potshots at the POTUS? Didn’t they understand what King stood for? Don’t you? What exactly is it that GWB has done against CSK?

Exactly. Not the students. This is a top down decision imposed on the students. And if you know the New School, you know they’ll rebel to being used as a prop for some right winger’s presidential campaign.
exactly what andrew? The students treated the guest improperly. They should have gone to Kerry with their problem. When your parents had company over that you didn’t like, did you treat them like dirt?

Said andrew- It was kerry’s guest. Kerry can treat his guest properly. For the students, it wasn’t a guest. It was something imposed on them.

“When your parents had company over that you didn’t like, did you treat them like dirt?”

My parents are not my university president.
1. I will take that answer as a “no Pam, I did not treat my parents guests with disrespect”
2. Imposed on them like a test? So if they don’t feel like taking a test, they tell the teacher to shove it? You are reaching here andrew. The kids should have taken their anger to the school administration, not acted like uneducated idiots with the guest.

Nothing. He apparently can’t hear criticism of war at a peace activists’s funeral though.She was a civil rights activist. And I will ask again, what place is there at her funeral to take the spotlight off her and her accomplishments, and place the emphasis on those that want to use her to further their agenda?
I would have loved to see the past and present elected officals sit there and listen to one story after another given by the people that fought side by side with CSK. I would have loved to have heard from the past and present elected officals on how CSK had touched their lives, and what changes they made in their personal lives. Instead it turned out to be a 4 hour bash-Bush ceremony.

– If being a smartass and disrespecting people that have given so much to the service of their country is what you came away with from your upbringing andrew, its a pretty good indication your parents didn’t spend much time being your parents either….

Pam give it up. You won’t convince Andrew that decorum should be a social norm. This is about rebellion, and trying to make a splash. I can only imagine Ms. Rohe giggling like an elementary school child once she was amongst her friends afterward. She knows she did McCain wrong, otherwise why apologize?? She also takes that as her refuge, that she was stand up enough to apologize to McCain after it was all said and done. What a gal!!!

Pam, seriously now, Andrew has shown over and over again, that the Left can do no wrong, or it’s just not their fault. I am no fan of John McCain, and I cringe when I read that he is suddenly right wing, moderate would be closer to the mark, but I wouldn’t treat the man so harshly that I would have to apologize to him later. Just because logic and forward thinking were taught, doesn’t mean you learned anything from it, you know the whole horse and water thing. – Lorica

– Maybe you should consider the idea of walking 10 miles in the other persons shoes, before you go off on the Critisizing junket. Nothing like the prospect of someone who’s never done a damn thing in their lives that takes the tinyest amount of courage or character, critizing someone who has. In McCains case, that goes 10 times. But with the left, nothing is sacred. the Politic IS the message. The hell with respect or manners. When your ideas are so asocial and proven failures time after time, and you’re in a small minority, you can’t afford things like character and manners. You have to go for it every chance you get. Hell of a way to live.

BTW – I’m no fan of McCains politics. I disaggree with him about 90% of the time. But I wouldn’t let my political feelings cause me to diss him. Hes paid a hell of a price so people like you andrew, are free to act out.

Wisdom, andrew, comes not from knowing that you can do a thing, but from knowing when it’s appropriate and right to do a thing. Something the left is sorely lacking, but then, the leftist mentality is permanently stuck in adolescence.

– Theres more to life, and personal character, than the humorless, vapid, dogmatic “can I do something” andrew. That sort of narcisistic thinking may be a cutsie way to justify angry, undisciplined behavior in your mind. But it fools no one. A bigger man would recognize McCain’s sacrifices and show some respect.

– But don’t get me wrong. I know only too well that there are no “big” men, or women, in the swamp fevor minds of the left. Who would expect people that have no respect for themselves to show any to someone else.

– The ideologically driven twit apologized, of course so none of her peers could hear her, because she knew what she did was infantile and wrong. No other reason.

“Wisdom, andrew, comes not from knowing that you can do a thing, but from knowing when it’s appropriate and right to do a thing.”

What a better time to speak than when you are invited as a speaker?

“A bigger man would recognize McCain’s sacrifices and show some respect.”

There’s respecting a man and there’s respecting what he promotes. Just because a man has suffered does not mean he is right. Juts because a man is powerful and a member of the elite does not mean his ideas cannot be criticized. Republicans think everything is personal. Its not. Its his policy that is wrong. What he advocates. Not his person.

I bet andrew would be screaming and whining if they’d done this to one of his liberal idols. That would be evil conservative Republipuke hate speech.

When the liberals give up on violent, obnoxious personal attacks, then I’ll believe it’s not personal. Liberals make it personal, because they can’t rationally defeat the ideas of the right. They then resort to disgusting personal attacks, while claiming they are just against the message. Fie on all of them.

Someone like Kerry, right andrew. Man shoots himself in the ass twice with granade launchers, gives himself purple hearts for it, re-stages it so he can film it all (altered of course – heros don’t tend to shoot their own asses), spends a Christmas in Cambodia cursing a President who hasn’t been elected yet, all of it in his mind, meets with the NVA in Paris twice, in direct violation of the UCMJ and anti-American espionage laws, threatens other vets in the Winter Soldier group to say what he wants them too.

With the group when it plots the murder of a sitting Senator, lies to Congress about things hes never done or seen, gets a dishonorable discharge, and won’t show the public his true war records. Did I mention he served in Viet Nam. What a guy. Three years, and he just can’t find that form 180.

Andrew- I must say, I just can’t believe you would defend this type of behavior. Severian’s comment : “Wisdom, andrew, comes not from knowing that you can do a thing, but from knowing when it’s appropriate and right to do a thing.” That would be like the example I gave you about trating your parent’s guest rudely!

Now, if I understand the anti-war reasoning, they hate the fact that this was a “pre-emptive” war. We attacked before being attacked..Do I have that right Andrew?

How do you explain this: And that’s when the idea for a preemptive strike began to brew in my little stressed-out brain.

“[sic]Juts because a man is powerful and a member of the elite does not mean his ideas cannot be criticized.”

– Of course. Nobody is immune to critique. thats another phony strawman. the Left is always yammering that someone is trying to deny them the right to oppose ideas or trample their free speech.

– But theres a time and a place for everything. Thats the difference between being an adult and being a cantankerous child. You have all the adults together, and you just can’t control your urge to go “Waa waa waa waaaaaaaaa”. Infantile impulse, which is why most observers see and believe that a lot of the Left are arrested development children in adult bodies.

Absolutely Bang. She would not of apologized if she knew she wasn’t in the wrong. But to save face with her peers she had to do it one on one. LOL This is nothing more than peer pressure, leftist indoctrination at it’s worst.

Andrew when you can explain why she apologized then I might listen to the rest of what you have to say. She knew she did McCain wrong, and you do too. But yet you continue to defend it. – Lorica

– Old John, g_d bless him, is obviously well into senility. I doubt he’d know if you were dissing him. He’s found a way to get some late afternoon attention, and since its the Left he’s pandering too, substance is un-neccessary.

Nah. I think kerry is a dope. Marx? wrote a lot. Had a clever idea that I read in the preface to the critique of a political economy. Havent read much else by him. But not a hero. Daniel Ellsberg is my hero.

“Andrew when you can explain why she apologized then I might listen to the rest of what you have to say. She knew she did McCain wrong, and you do too.

She apologized because it wasn’t his fault or her fault. It just had to happen. And i’m sure it hurt. Our elite rulers, just like the rest of us, i’m sure hurt when they are criticized. And its polite to apologized when you hurt someone one. Even if it has to be done.

Andrew, you ducked. No criticism of Murtha (the man or his ideas) is allowed by the Left. And Murtha, with his Clinton-esque playing with language (calling a retreat a “re-deployment”) and his smears of American soldiers, is deserving of lots of criticism.

“Andrew, you ducked. No criticism of Murtha (the man or his ideas) is allowed by the Left.”

Perhaps. I mean, I’m kind of critical of him. I think he’s being rather blunt and tactless. As a member of the armed services committee, I think he has other tools at his disposal to advance his ideas rather than his statements.

Ah yes, undoubtedly true andrew, but the other avenues wouldn’t give him the huge ego stroke that appearing on the TV news, garnering the adulation of the anti-war left, would. If you go back to Murtha’s statements from the beginning, you see that one of the things that really bothered him, and which I think is the main reason he’s doing this, is that he felt that Bush didn’t pay enough attention to him, he never got an invitation to the White House to talk about the war or military issues, as he apparently did in previous administrations.

Ego driven politics, and the safety and welfare of the troops be damned.

“Ah yes, undoubtedly true andrew, but the other avenues wouldn’t give him the huge ego stroke that appearing on the TV news, garnering the adulation of the anti-war left, would.”

The guy is from deer-hunter (the movie) country and is one of hte top recipients of military contractor money. I don’t think he much cares for adulation from the anti-war left. I suspect that what he is doing is serving as a mouthpiece for people who are his contacts in the military-industrial complex. But I don’t think that’s very effective.

But ego driven doesn’t make sense. This is not something that will help him get elected. Not in his district.

– I don’t know his background, and at this point I can’t really say I care too. He supposidly has some medals and a good career when he was in. More than likely he was a “buckaroo”, which drives company commanders nutz in the field, least they go off destroying everything in sight.

– Either way he doesn’t have to face that anymore, and its just wrong to accuse people before they’ve had a fair hearing, troops still in the field in harms way, AGITPROPing for no good reason. The troops will start standing down as things improve for the Iraqi army and police. That was always the plan, so hes just stirring the pot.

Sure, it’s fine and dandy to be obnoxiously rude at a commencement speaker who has done nothing wrong to the audience…

But then comes the student who heckles the President of the college (former Senator Bob Kerrey, a fellow Vietnam vet with a prosthetic leg to show for it) and calls him a “war criminal”…

I repeat: a “war criminal.”

That is beyond rude. It is despicable.

If I were a Vietnam vet – heck, a vet of any war – hearing all of that and were a prospective employer of these grads to boot, I would remember the school and the class. Any resume that would come into my desk from any grad from that school this year would take the fastest trip to the shredder of any document.

If those grads have shown is that they’re rude, crude and immature. I cannot personally accept that kind of childishness.